The present disclosure is directed to circuits and methods for auto-adjustment of switch timing in cyclical electronic circuits using detection and adjustment circuits.
In electronic circuits, it is often desired to perform switching of an input signal when the voltage of that signal is at or near zero volts. Zero voltage switching is used in some cases to reduce or eliminate transient effects that may result from switching of a signal that is not at zero volts, which may negatively impact the operation of other electronic components in the circuit. For example, in a synchronous rectifier, field effect transistors are commonly used for rectifier elements, and provide efficient operation of the rectifier. In such devices, switching of the transistors at zero volts is important for proper operation of the circuit. In some cases, the cyclical input signal that is being rectified can have variations in the frequency of the cyclical signal, and thus switching according to a preset timing may lead to sub-optimal performance.
Additionally, in some electronic circuits it is also desirable to use energy from an input signal to drive a switch. However, if zero voltage switching is also desired, the energy in the input signal at the time of switching may not be sufficient to drive the switch to zero volts. If the switch in such cases is not properly switched, this can also lead to sub-optimal performance of the electronic circuit.